#2 - my favourite. I can imagine this lifeform ambushing from above and it has the ability to swallow a marine whole, if you pounce correctly. The marine sees inside the aliens guts and slowly takes damage. He can shoot himself out, takes 3 shotgun shells and the alien will explode it's gut's everywhere. The acid is a good way to break up marines and do a bit of chip damage, but is easily navigated around. When spat on, a huge wall of fire is created which does double damage and almost completely envelopes a small area, cutting marines off from key areas. Marines can extinguish the fire and neutralise the acid with a Pulse grenade.

#5 - I envisage the potential for a gorge to evolve into this lifeform, for a certain amount of extra p-res. Gorges aren't often as useful once tunnels are up, hives, etc, so mid-late game you can evolve into a Battle Gorge, with more offensive abilities. Or alternatively, you can evolve into a Battle Gorge at any time, but with a 5 minute cooldown, so you can't switch between gorge/battle gorge too often so pick your moments appropriately.

#6 - As a res biter myself, I love this lifeform as a potential alternative to the Crush ability, maybe that ability can be changed with something else and instead you rely on this lifeform to do some heavy structure damage. This lifeform could be attractive to newcomers of the game as well, because I see it as almost like a passive-onos where you don't do much damage, but your not easily killable. Your a highly agile, disruptive alien on the battle field.

Yeah it's early but I like #2 the best so far. I think the lifeform should be bigger than a gorge or skulk or it won't feel like as signficant of a change to the game imo. Also, I like the idea of the short arms to distinquish it from a fade look. Plus, everyone likes the T-rex, so something vaguely similar would be fun.

We were talking in the UWE discord about having a shotgun like ability for it. Maybe it could spray acid in a similar spread to a shotgun. Could be fun. If they are going to add a new lifeform to the game, I don't think it should be a support role all the way. Might as well give it fun fragging/damage power while giving people an alternate to fade.

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to play Natural Selection 2. The gameplay is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of military strategy and advanced mathematics you won't even win a single game. Theres also the game's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into the game. The maps and artwork draw heavily from Riddley Scott's Alien franchise, for instance. The players understand this stuff, they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depth of the game, to realise that it's not just great, that it also says something about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Natural Selection 2 truly ARE idiots. of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humour in the Marines' existential catchphrase "how do I get to be so good", which itself is a cryptic reference to the high degree of intelligence required to play the game as intended. I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion when spectating a game. What fools... how I pity them.
And, yes, by the way, i DO have a Fade tatoo. And no, you cannot see it. it's for the ladies' eyes only, and even then they have to demonstrate that they are within 50 hive skill points of my own (preferable lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid.

It's a bit of a tease. I'd be surprised if they introduced a new lifeform this late.

I hope it is just a tease. I am more afraid UWE will release something half baked just to attract old players back to the game at the expense of good gameplay. UWE has been known to use the pareto principle to justify releasing broken or poorly done features before.

I fail to see the value any of these six lifeforms will bring beyond being a draw for old players to return. This seems to be a move equivalent to the jumping the shark trope. Maybe I am lacking imagination here. I look forward to be proven wrong.

Worse yet is that I am finding very few players have heard of this move by UWE except by word of mouth from the people who hang out on discord. If this is a big marketing move, it seems to have fallen a little short. I am really unsure what UWE is trying to do here.

From my perspective UWE has been trying to both with what little resources they have given to the game. They don't have an AAA budget, let alone an indie game budget. They have the budget of a game that has been out 6 years. I want to say, don't half ass two things, whole ass one thing. I just don't think they have the resources to do it. Unlike many of the people on the forums, I guess I am just happy they are at least trying even though I may not like what they end up doing.

This isn't a marketing move, its the devs having fun considering possibilities that have absolutely no guarantees or any development time into them... its just people who love the game, toying with ideas that sound fun. No more, No less.

They even said in the stream that it is art drawn up for fun just thinking about the future possibilities "none of which are set in stone" when the current road map is completed.

I think it is very jaded to consider this to be marketing in any way when it was done purely out of the love of the game by rantology as a passion project. Jeez, chill out guys, lighten up and have a bit of fun ffs, this is a GAME after all...

This isn't a marketing move, its the devs having fun considering possibilities that have absolutely no guarantees or any development time into them... its just people who love the game, toying with ideas that sound fun. No more, No less.

They even said in the stream that it is art drawn up for fun just thinking about the future possibilities "none of which are set in stone" when the current road map is completed.

I think it is very jaded to consider this to be marketing in any way when it was done purely out of the love of the game by rantology as a passion project. Jeez, chill out guys, lighten up and have a bit of fun ffs, this is a GAME after all...

I missed the stream, and reading this blog post, and by what I have heard from others I have had no indication that it was a passion project. At most, I saw a "We have not as of this moment decided to pursue making a sixth lifeform." This just sounded to me like indecisiveness.

I may be being a bit pessimistic or jaded, but without the stream, I am lacking a lot of information. I am just working with the information I have.

From my perspective UWE has been trying to both with what little resources they have given to the game. They don't have an AAA budget, let alone an indie game budget. They have the budget of a game that has been out 6 years. I want to say, don't half ass two things, whole ass one thing. I just don't think they have the resources to do it. Unlike many of the people on the forums, I guess I am just happy they are at least trying even though I may not like what they end up doing.

It's a bit of a tease. I'd be surprised if they introduced a new lifeform this late.

I hope it is just a tease. I am more afraid UWE will release something half baked just to attract old players back to the game at the expense of good gameplay. UWE has been known to use the pareto principle to justify releasing broken or poorly done features before.

I fail to see the value any of these six lifeforms will bring beyond being a draw for old players to return. This seems to be a move equivalent to the jumping the shark trope. Maybe I am lacking imagination here. I look forward to be proven wrong.

Worse yet is that I am finding very few players have heard of this move by UWE except by word of mouth from the people who hang out on discord. If this is a big marketing move, it seems to have fallen a little short. I am really unsure what UWE is trying to do here.

You are destroying your own point, like you said, why would they care to attract old players to the game when it wouldn't bring them anything?

Also she says:

But, as a disclaimer, these are only ideas at this point. We have not as of this moment decided to pursue making a sixth lifeform.

I personally would love a new lifeform just for the sake of discovering a new UNW creation and play NS2 like it's 2010 again!

You are destroying your own point, like you said, why would they care to attract old players to the game when it wouldn't bring them anything?

Attracting old players could dramatically increase the concurrent player count and is a worthwhile goal.

Edit: You said I was destroying my own point, and then proceed to misrepresent my point.

I was trying to make express concern for UWE releasing a poorly implemented unnecessary 6th lifeform.

If UWE successfully implemented a 6th lifeform, I think it would be a huge draw for the thousands upon thousands of old ns2 players to come back and try ns2 again. Ns2 has improved significantly since release, and a lot of these old players might stick around for a while. Ns2 desperately needs more concurrent players to get more concurrent players. A 6th lifeform could be the seed that makes it happen.

I may have failed to realize this was just a fun exercise for UWE. I don't think the blog post alone makes that clear. I have yet to make time to go watch the last stream UWE did.

Post edited by Nordic on February 28

From my perspective UWE has been trying to both with what little resources they have given to the game. They don't have an AAA budget, let alone an indie game budget. They have the budget of a game that has been out 6 years. I want to say, don't half ass two things, whole ass one thing. I just don't think they have the resources to do it. Unlike many of the people on the forums, I guess I am just happy they are at least trying even though I may not like what they end up doing.

You are destroying your own point, like you said, why would they care to attract old players to the game when it wouldn't bring them anything?

Attracting old players could dramatically increase the concurrent player count and is a worthwhile goal.

The way to attract old players isn't to add in a 6th lifeform, its to release dates for a 2nd WC. The way to bring in new players is to do a big marketing campaign that includes sponsored streams from big twitch names. Both of these things could be tied together to do a BIG marketing/advertising push for NS2 and could dramatically increase the playercount and would theoretically increase retention also... but only time will tell if either or both of these things will ever happen.

But yeah, if you want to check out the VOD its here - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/385526245
Its a good watch regardless, was a fun stream and the last 15 minutes ish are talking about these images and how Rant did a whole powerpoint presentation to back up her drawings just to encourage peoples imaginations and have some fun XD

I don't see how a 6th lifeform wouldn't bring back a ton of people just to try the new lifeform. Otherwise I agree with everything you said Kash.

From my perspective UWE has been trying to both with what little resources they have given to the game. They don't have an AAA budget, let alone an indie game budget. They have the budget of a game that has been out 6 years. I want to say, don't half ass two things, whole ass one thing. I just don't think they have the resources to do it. Unlike many of the people on the forums, I guess I am just happy they are at least trying even though I may not like what they end up doing.

I don't see how a 6th lifeform wouldn't bring back a ton of people just to try the new lifeform. Otherwise I agree with everything you said Kash.

I think it has the potential to, but compared to a WC or similar, its not going to be a huge thing... and depending on how the lifeform plays, it may just push even more people away.

Exposure to larger audiences is safer, creates competition and hypes people up, adding a 6th lifeform risks alienating (pun not intended) the audience the game currently has to try to bring people who stopped playing back, adding a new lifeform isn't going to bring new people in obviously, they don't know any different, but current players can be pushed away and people who already left aren't guaranteed to return and stay just for the 6th lifeform... seems like it would need to be something very carefully planned and its still a big risk... holding a new event that creates hype is way safer and not only brings old players back but stirs up interest for potential new players too.

Jeez, chill out guys, lighten up and have a bit of fun ffs, this is a GAME after all...

Hilarious for you of all people to say.

In any case, I don't think anyone is needing to chill out at all. No one in this thread is angry or emotional. I have seen nothing but thoroughly neutral response to this. If anything, you should be shouting GET PUMPED! STOP BEING SO CHILL if you think it's a good idea.

I don't see how a 6th lifeform wouldn't bring back a ton of people just to try the new lifeform. Otherwise I agree with everything you said Kash.

I think it has the potential to, but compared to a WC or similar, its not going to be a huge thing... and depending on how the lifeform plays, it may just push even more people away.

Exposure to larger audiences is safer, creates competition and hypes people up, adding a 6th lifeform risks alienating (pun not intended) the audience the game currently has to try to bring people who stopped playing back, adding a new lifeform isn't going to bring new people in obviously, they don't know any different, but current players can be pushed away and people who already left aren't guaranteed to return and stay just for the 6th lifeform... seems like it would need to be something very carefully planned and its still a big risk... holding a new event that creates hype is way safer and not only brings old players back but stirs up interest for potential new players too.

From my perspective UWE has been trying to both with what little resources they have given to the game. They don't have an AAA budget, let alone an indie game budget. They have the budget of a game that has been out 6 years. I want to say, don't half ass two things, whole ass one thing. I just don't think they have the resources to do it. Unlike many of the people on the forums, I guess I am just happy they are at least trying even though I may not like what they end up doing.

I think the Kharaa have all the bases covered already and the only real way to do it is to do it properly with a new faction to play. Balancing would be a complete nightmare but it makes more sense than altering the current factions this drastically.

Jeez, chill out guys, lighten up and have a bit of fun ffs, this is a GAME after all...

In any case, I don't think anyone is needing to chill out at all. No one in this thread is angry or emotional. I have seen nothing but thoroughly neutral response to this. If anything, you should be shouting GET PUMPED! STOP BEING SO CHILL if you think it's a good idea.

I don't think anyone sounded especially angry or emotional either. I made the one negative comment, and it wasn't even that negative.

I don't understand why Nin would disagree with your post either.

From my perspective UWE has been trying to both with what little resources they have given to the game. They don't have an AAA budget, let alone an indie game budget. They have the budget of a game that has been out 6 years. I want to say, don't half ass two things, whole ass one thing. I just don't think they have the resources to do it. Unlike many of the people on the forums, I guess I am just happy they are at least trying even though I may not like what they end up doing.

The abilities outlined are awesome (apart from the ranged attacks, aren't the teams supposed to be asymmetric?)
But instead of introducing a brand new life-form, i'd rather opt for a "modular" cast system...

As a skulk, you could choose between a canine/feline anatomy.
As a gorge, you could choose between defense/offense support.
Etc...

This way we get the options to spice up the game, and the gameplay wouldn't have to be refactored drastically.

From the visual standpoint all of them are amazing, but Specimen 2 is definitely the winner here for me with its T-Rex vibes. The combo-centered gameplay seems like a fun idea too! I also like the movement ideas from specimens 1 (grapple) and 4 (rocket-jump). Specimen 6 seems like a cool concept too with its focus on disruption.

Something that can go with an Onos without having to hide behind it all the time, maybe with a more powerful yet less versatile heal, that is more efficient on lifeforms and less on structures. Or the ability to combine a common healspray with a babbler like armor (Used on the same team mate they increase each other's effectivity). Maybe the ability to apply babblers to multiple friendlies, act as some sort of mobile base for lower lifeforms to fight around while being supported.

As for combat prowess, I was thinking about a drone carrier kind of approach. The ability to have multiple babbler like minions for different tasks as well as a variety of gas sprays to support friendlies. The main focus would be to micromanage the various abilities and their energy usage while being a bit more forgiving when taking damage. Maybe have this lifeform look at team mates more than at enemies, if you know what I mean.

Suppressing at least one of the "lower lifeform killers" like grenade launchers, flame throwers or railguns would be great. An AOE ability that distorts the vision of marines, akin to the Shade ability, would be great. Maybe even shake off their aim. The ability to "remove" oxygen from an immediate area to do damage to marine health if they are exposed for too long and to kill fire in the area. Being able to "digest" weapons or health packs to regain energy for themselves, giving part of the gain towards close by lifeforms like a small shift.

Maybe even the ability to shut down certain buildings with an ability. Maybe even reduce the effectivity of power surge so PGs take longer to "charge up" when passing from one location to the next when the next gate is under the influence, RTs give less resources or observatories take longer to beacon/do not quick revive marines that are currently spawning etc.+